nonfiction history books

Here are the best non-fiction books, including celebrity memoirs, investigations into the royal family, and more, to publish in 2020. Domestic Manners of the Americans by Frances Trollope (1832) Rich in detail and Old World snobbery, Trollope’s classic travelogue identifies aspects of America’s national character still visible today. Error rating book. A Treatise of Human Nature by David Hume (1739) This is widely seen as the philosopher’s most important work, but its first publication was a disaster. The Varieties of Religious Experience by William James (1902) This revolutionary work written by Henry James’s less famous brother brought a democratising impulse to the realm of religious belief. published 1970, avg rating 3.95 — 230,946 ratings — 31,422 ratings — 33. The Female Eunuch by Germaine Greer (1970) The Australian feminist’s famous polemic remains a masterpiece of passionate free expression in which she challenges a woman’s role in society. 82. 28. King James Bible: The Authorised Version (1611)It is impossible to imagine the English-speaking world celebrated in this series without the King James Bible, which is as universal and influential as Shakespeare. A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking (1988) The theoretical physicist’s mega-selling account of the origins of the universe is a masterpiece of scientific inquiry that has influenced the minds of a generation. 37. An absurdist masterpiece. 30. Culture and Anarchy by Matthew Arnold (1869) Arnold caught the public mood with this high-minded but entertaining critique of Victorian society posing questions about the art of civilised living that still perplex us. 99. Welcome back. 78. 100. 66. An Essay Concerning Human Understanding by John Locke (1689) Eloquent and influential, the Enlightenment philosopher’s most celebrated work embodies the English spirit and retains an enduring relevance. 88,873 ratings — 83. 995,556 ratings — Against Interpretation by Susan Sontag (1966) The American novelist’s early essays provide the quintessential commentary on the 1960s. But most importantly, it was the first book … published 2011, avg rating 4.03 — 32. 72. The Making of the English Working Class by EP Thompson (1963)This influential, painstakingly compiled masterpiece reads as an anatomy of pre-industrial Britain – and a description of the lost experience of the common man. 62. 56,345 ratings — A Book of Mediterranean Food by Elizabeth David (1950) This landmark recipe book, a horrified reaction to postwar rationing, introduced cooks to the food of southern Europe and readers to the art of food writing. 11. 34. 321,563 ratings — Of course not! But I’ve given it a try. published 1947, avg rating 3.84 — 61,791 ratings — De Profundis by Oscar Wilde (1905) There is a thrilling majesty to Oscar Wilde’s tormented tour de force written as he prepared for release from Reading jail. Good nonfiction books about history: espionage and cyber war The Angel: The Egyptian Spy Who Saved Israel by Uri Bar-Joseph – An extraordinary episode in Israeli history In the Enemy’s House: The Secret Saga of the FBI Agent and the Code Breaker Who Caught the Russian Spies by Howard Blum – How the Soviet atomic spies were caught Lessons of History by Will and Ariel Durant – The Durants wrote an 11-volume “History of the World” series that took up pretty much all of their adult lives. 15. 45. published 2002, avg rating 4.03 — Raise Kids Who Love to Read. 17,957 ratings — How Google Works. My focus is mainly restricted to comparative religion, history, international relations/area studies, biographies, current affairs, narrative non-fiction and some memoirs. The Life of Samuel Johnson LLD by James Boswell (1791) This huge work is one of the greatest of all English biographies and a testament to one of the great literary friendships. This small book is the distillations of the lessons from their decades of research. 17. Start your free trial. 81. 94. Proper nonfiction history books, not historical fiction, about any period, event, area or topic you like. published 2017, avg rating 4.14 — 79. A Woman of No Importance: The Untold Story of the American Spy Who Helped Win World War II Is it possible to pick 50 of the best nonfiction books ever? published 2015, avg rating 4.18 — Take a quick look back at five centuries of great writing published 1960, avg rating 3.90 — Shop by category 60. 10. 19,782 ratings — 58,058 ratings — The Pulitzer Prize winning, The Guns of August, by Barbara W. Tuchman, is focussed on the first month of World War I. Tuchman explains in detail the events that led to the war. 13. published 1997, avg rating 4.11 — The Devil in the White City book. My blog is almost exclusively devoted to non-fiction. Brief Lives by John Aubrey, edited by Andrew Clark (1898) Truly ahead of his time, the 17th-century historian and gossip John Aubrey is rightly credited as the man who invented biography. 88,868 ratings — 42. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions by Thomas S Kuhn (1962) The American physicist and philosopher of science coined the phrase “paradigm shift” in a book that is seen as a milestone in scientific theory. 41. 56. published 1997, avg rating 4.08 — Get the key ideas from 3000+ bestselling nonfiction books in 15-minute text and audio. Grant by Ron Chernow. 49. American novelist, writer, playwright, poet, essayist and civil rights activist James Baldwin in 1979. 789,371 ratings — published 1980, avg rating 4.41 — 101,428 ratings — 50. On Liberty by John Stuart Mill (1859) This fine, lucid writer captured the mood of the time with this spirited assertion of the English individual’s rights. An American Dictionary of the English Language by Noah Webster (1828) Though a lexicographical landmark to stand alongside Dr Johnson’s achievement, the original sold only 2,500 copies and left its author in debt. published 1995, avg rating 4.00 — Nonfiction Kindle Books Explore the Nonfiction Kindle Book Store for titles on History , Biographies & Memoirs , Business & Money , and more. published 1978, avg rating 4.13 — 58. Nonsense Songs by Edward Lear (1871) The Victorians loved wordplay, and few could rival this compendium of verbal delirium by Britain’s “laureate of nonsense”. Ten Days That Shook the World by John Reed (1919) The American socialist’s romantic account of the Russian revolution is a masterpiece of reportage. published 2010, avg rating 3.73 — This is the story of a human-made tragedy, and the … The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins (1976) An intoxicating renewal of evolutionary theory that coined the idea of the meme and paved the way for Professor Dawkins’s later, more polemical works. 39. How to Cook a Wolf by MFK Fisher (1942)The American culinary icon was one of the first writers to use food as a cultural metaphor, describing the sensual pleasures of the table with elegance and passion. Also read TIME’s lists of the 10 best fiction books of 2020, the 100 must-read books of the year and the 10 best video games of the year . The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano by Olaudah Equiano (1789)The most famous slave memoir of the 18th century is a powerful and terrifying read, and established Equiano as a founding figure in black literary tradition. Try Blinkist for free Blinkist News Book Lists Work and Success Society and Culture Mind and Body Listen to Simplify. Our world history is vast, and these 30 books are only the tip of the iceberg. The Devil in the White City book. 27. Life on the Mississippi by Mark Twain (1883) This memoir of Samuel Clemens’s time as a steamboat pilot provides insight into his best-known characters, as well as the writer he would become. published 1995, avg rating 3.70 — published 2018, avg rating 4.38 — The Diary of Samuel Pepys by Samuel Pepys (1660) A portrait of an extraordinary Englishman, whose scintillating firsthand accounts of Restoration England are recorded alongside his rampant sexual exploits. 167,867 ratings — The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon (1776-1788)Perhaps the greatest and certainly one of the most influential history books in the English language, in which Gibbon unfolds the narrative from the height of the Roman empire to the fall of Byzantium. The Souls of Black Folk by WEB Du Bois (1903) The great social activist’s collection of essays on the African American experience became a founding text of the civil rights movement. Books Advanced Search New Releases Best Sellers & More Children's Books Textbooks Textbook Rentals Best Books of the Month 1-16 of over 100,000 results for "nonfiction history" Skip to main search results 82,280 ratings — Hiroshima by John Hersey (1946) Hersey’s extraordinary, gripping book tells the personal stories of six people who endured the 1945 atom bomb attack. How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie (1936) The original self-help manual on American life – with its influence stretching from the Great Depression to Donald Trump – has a lot to answer for. published 1962, avg rating 4.05 — Try it today & read your way to a better you. 67. This adult fantasy novel incredibly violent, according to reviews. 555,383 ratings — 38. avg rating 3.99 — published 2001, avg rating 4.19 — 604,477 ratings — 6. 1. Baby & Toddler (0-2) Pre-K (3–5) Growing Reader (6–8) Tween (9–12) Teen (13+) Discover Baby & Toddler (0-2) Pre-K (3–5) Growing Reader (6–8) Tween (9–12) Teen (13+) Editor's Pick. Silent Spring by Rachel Carson (1962) This classic of American advocacy sparked a nationwide outcry against the use of pesticides, inspired legislation that would endeavour to control pollution, and launched the modern environmental movement in the US. I accept review inquiries for historical fiction and any all related subgenres. A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift (1729) The satirist’s jaw-dropping solution to the plight of the Irish poor is among the most powerful tracts in the English language. 10. In this list I narrowed down the topic a bit by focusing on books within the last 100 years or so, including some very contemporary ones, and I kept just a few genres: biography, memoir, history, social sciences, culture, science, and nature. When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi Print | eBook | Audiobook These are the pillar books that have helped shape my thinking and approach to life. Black Boy: A Record of Childhood and Youth by Richard Wright (1945) This influential memoir of a rebellious southern boyhood vividly evokes the struggle for African American identity in the decades before civil rights. In my opinion, these are 10 nonfiction books everyone should read. 64,486 ratings — Robert McCrum reflects on his 100 greatest nonfiction books list, The 100 best novels written in English: the full list, The Sixth Extinction by Elizabeth Kolbert (2014), The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion (2005), Dreams from My Father by Barack Obama (1995), A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking (1988), The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins (1976), The Female Eunuch by Germaine Greer (1970), Awopbopaloobop Alopbamboom by Nik Cohn (1969), The Double Helix by James D Watson (1968), Against Interpretation by Susan Sontag (1966), The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan (1963), The Making of the English Working Class by EP Thompson (1963), The Structure of Scientific Revolutions by Thomas S Kuhn (1962), The Elements of Style by William Strunk and EB White (1959), The Affluent Society by John Kenneth Galbraith (1958), The Uses of Literacy: Aspects of Working-Class Life by Richard Hoggart (1957), Notes of a Native Son by James Baldwin (1955), The Nude: A Study of Ideal Art by Kenneth Clark (1956), The Hedgehog and the Fox by Isaiah Berlin (1953), Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett (1952/53), A Book of Mediterranean Food by Elizabeth David (1950), The Last Days of Hitler by Hugh Trevor-Roper (1947), The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care by Dr Benjamin Spock (1946), The Open Society and Its Enemies by Karl Popper (1945), Black Boy: A Record of Childhood and Youth by Richard Wright (1945), Enemies of Promise by Cyril Connolly (1938), The Road to Wigan Pier by George Orwell (1937), The Road to Oxiana by Robert Byron (1937), How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie (1936), Testament of Youth by Vera Brittain (1933), My Early Life: A Roving Commission by Winston Churchill (1930), Goodbye to All That by Robert Graves (1929), A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf (1929), Ten Days That Shook the World by John Reed (1919), The Economic Consequences of the Peace by John Maynard Keynes (1919), The American Language by HL Mencken (1919), Eminent Victorians by Lytton Strachey (1918), The Souls of Black Folk by WEB Du Bois (1903), The Varieties of Religious Experience by William James (1902), Brief Lives by John Aubrey, edited by Andrew Clark (1898), Personal Memoirs by Ulysses S Grant (1885), Life on the Mississippi by Mark Twain (1883), Travels With a Donkey in the Cévennes by Robert Louis Stevenson (1879), Culture and Anarchy by Matthew Arnold (1869), On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin (1859), The Wonderful Adventures of Mrs Seacole in Many Lands by Mary Seacole (1857), The Life of Charlotte Brontë by Elizabeth Gaskell (1857), London Labour and the London Poor by Henry Mayhew (1851), Household Education by Harriet Martineau (1848), Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave by Frederick Douglass (1845), Domestic Manners of the Americans by Frances Trollope (1832), An American Dictionary of the English Language by Noah Webster (1828), Confessions of an English Opium-Eater by Thomas De Quincey (1822), Tales from Shakespeare by Charles and Mary Lamb (1807), Travels in the Interior Districts of Africa by Mungo Park (1799), The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin by Benjamin Franklin (1793), A Vindication of the Rights of Woman by Mary Wollstonecraft (1792), The Life of Samuel Johnson LLD by James Boswell (1791), Reflections on the Revolution in France by Edmund Burke (1790), The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano by Olaudah Equiano (1789), The Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne by Gilbert White (1789), The Federalist Papers by ‘Publius’ (1788), The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon (1776-1788), The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith (1776), A Dictionary of the English Language by Samuel Johnson (1755), A Treatise of Human Nature by David Hume (1739), A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift (1729), A Tour Through the Whole Island of Great Britain by Daniel Defoe (1727), An Essay Concerning Human Understanding by John Locke (1689), The Book of Common Prayer by Thomas Cranmer (1662), The Diary of Samuel Pepys by Samuel Pepys (1660), Hydriotaphia, Urn Burial, or A Brief Discourse of the Sepulchral Urns Lately Found in Norfolk by, Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions by John Donne (1624), The First Folio by William Shakespeare (1623), The Anatomy of Melancholy by Robert Burton (1621), The History of the World by Walter Raleigh (1614), King James Bible: The Authorised Version (1611), What did Robert miss? 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